Russell promoted the worship of Jesus and prayer to him because he is our God.

"It seems clear that His Divinity was retained in humanity because He repeatedly spoke of Himself as having come down from heaven, and because He, though passing through trial and sorrow as a man, was yet possessed of the authority and exercised the prerogatives of a God. He was the object of unreproved worship even when a babe, by the wise men who came to see the new-born King. Matt. 2:2-11. Even the angels delighted to do Him honor. "When He bringeth the first-begotten into the world, He saith, "And let all the angels of God worship Him." Heb. 1:6. He never reproved any one for acts of worship offered to Himself, but when Cornelius offered such service to Peter--the leading apostle-- "he took him up, saying, stand up; I myself also am a man." .... Had Christ not been more than a man the same reason would have prevented from receiving worship...." Zion's Watch Tower 1880 Oct pp.2-3

"It is undoubtedly proper enough for us to address petitions to our Redeemer and Advocate, who loved us and gave himself for us....Although we are nowhere instructed to make petitions to him, it evidently could not be improper so to do; for such a course is nowhere prohibited, and the disciples worshiped him." Zion's Watch Tower 1892 May 15 p.157

"Question. The fact that our Lord received worship is claimed by some to be an evidence that while on earth he was God the Father disguised in a body of flesh and not really a man. Was he really worshiped, or is the translation faulty? Answer. Yes, we believe our Lord Jesus while on earth was really worshiped, and properly so. It was proper for our Lord to receive worship in view of his having been the only begotten of the Father and his agent in the creation of all things, including man." Zion's Watch Tower 1898 Jul 15 p.216

"In one respect many of Christendom could learn numerous important lessons from these wise Gentiles....They worshiped him in three senses of the word: (1) They fell before him, prostrated themselves, thus physically expressing their reverence. (2) They worshiped him in their hearts and with the tongue gave expression to their rejoicing and confidence. (3) They opened their treasure-box and presented to him three gifts appropriate to royalty: the myrrh representing submission, frankincense representing praise, gold representing obedience." Zion's Watch Tower 1906 Jan 1 p.15

Rutherford continued this teaching.

"Jehovah God commands all to worship Christ Jesus because Christ Jesus is the express image of his Father, Jehovah, and because he is the Executive Officer of Jehovah always carrying out Jehovah's purpose (Heb.:3-6)." Watchtower 1939 Nov. 15 p.339 Click for scan

"During the Millennium, "the princes will lead the people in their worship of Jehovah and of Christ." Vindication Volume 3 p.295

"The people of all nations who obtain salvation must come to the house of the Lord to worship there; that is to say, they must believe on and worship Jehovah God and the Lord Jesus Christ, his chief instrument (Philippians 2:10, 11)." Salvation p.151 http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/worshi...

If for decades they've made claim that they now say is false on such a core part of the belief, how can they claim to know with certainty that anything they now claim is certain to be true?

Because, Jehovah is teaching and refining us a little at a time so we can easily absorb the information. We have learned a great deal over time and each day brings us a little closer to perfection and the new world Jehovah is creating.

Since this progression of learning for God's people is prophesied in the bible, wouldn't it be more logical to ask why no other church has grown and improved over the years but rather clings to thousand year old traditions?

It can lead to a significant degree of confusion when people who are familiar only with the modern day use of words attempt to criticize material written decades ago.

JWs have never taught that Jesus should be "worshiped" in the same sense that Almighty God is worshiped. The worship given to Jesus has always been in a relative sense. There was no change in teaching. They just revised the rendering because the word "worship" had undergone a change in meaning in English.

"Worship" comes from the Old English "weorthscipe", which means the condition of being worthy of respect or dignity. So for many centuries, the term simply meant ascribing honor, worth, or excellence to someone. In other words, giving honor appropriate to office, not only the honor appropriate to God.

In Scripture, the term "worship" was similarly broad in meaning. It was used the same way in the Bible that it used to be used in English. It could cover both the worship given to God alone and the honor that is to be shown to certain human beings. For example: Genesis 37:7?9; 49:2-27; Exodus 18:7. None of these passages are discussing the kind of worship given to God.

Sometime about the mid 20th Century, the English term "worship" narrowed in scope to indicate only the supreme form of reverence that is due God. JWs revised their terminology accordingly. They did not modify their view of worship given to Jesus.

In Matthew devil tells Jesus to hurl himself down for it rather is written that God could call the angels to Jesus help so he does not strike his foot against a stone. and that's while Jesus tells devil to no longer temp God. In Luke this is an identical component devil is telling Jesus to place God to the try with the aid of throwing himself off the battlement of the temple and notice if God could stop Jesus from getting harm and Jesus tells devil to no longer placed God to the try. Summation - Jesus Christ isn't Jehovah God.

The reason is this--The JW,s were using trinity translated bibles --they erred in the usage of the greek word Proskenaue--it had 4 different meanings from Greek to English-1) worship to God 2) obesiance to a king--- the israelites were looking for the messiah to be a mighty king --not God--so the correct usage was obesiance for Jesus. they also left the a out of John 1:1 in the last line--the greeks didnt use a or an in their written language--the trinity translators left it out to practice false council teachings. Upon the JW teachers finding these truths out--they changed the error teaching from worship to obesiance. We bow our knees to our reigning king Jesus in obesiance.

Most Hebrew and Greek words that can denote worship can also be applied to acts other than worship. The context determines in what way the respective words are to be understood. Please see: http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/12000...

For instance, the act described by proskuneo (or shachah) was of bowing or kneeling, and it generally indicated an act of *respect* and a display of one's willingness to submit to or serve another person who occupied a superior position, regardless of his nature (somewhat similar to a salute in the military today).

The Hebrew word most often translated "worship" is shachah, and it is usually rendered as proskuneo in the Greek Septuagint version of the Old Testament. Unger and White say of this word: "Shachah ... 'to worship, prostrate oneself, bow down.'" And, "The act of bowing down in homage done before a superior [in rank] or a ruler. Thus David 'bowed' himself [shachah] before Saul (1 Sam. 24:8). Sometimes it is a social or economic superior to whom one bows, as when Ruth 'bowed' [shachah] to the ground before Boaz (Ruth 2:10)." - Nelson's Expository Dictionary of the Old Testament, 1980, Thomas Nelson Publ., p. 482.

Even the extremely trinitarian W. E. Vine writes in his An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, p. 1247:

"PROSKUNEO ... to make obeisance, do reverence to (from pros, towards, and kuneo, to kiss), is the most frequent word rendered 'to worship'. It is used for an act of homage or reverence (a) to God ...; (b) to Christ ...; (c) to a MAN, Matt. 18:26." ("Obeisance," of course, shows "respect, submission, or reverence" - Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, 1961.)

It was done, of course, IN IT'S VERY HIGHEST SENSE TO GOD ALONE, *but* it was also done, IN A LOWER SENSE of the same word, to kings, angels, prophets, etc. That is why proskuneo is translated "prostrated himself before" at Matt. 18:26 NASB, even though the KJV uses "worship" there. Notice how other trinitarian translations render that verse (RSV and NIV for example) where a servant "worships" [proskuneo] his master. And that is why, in the account of the man blind from birth whom Jesus healed, we see that man giving proskuneo to Jesus at John 9:38. The ASV, in a footnote for John 9:38, says,

"The Greek word [proskuneo] denotes an act of reverence, whether paid to a creature, as here [Jesus], or to the Creator."

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Notice the following excerpt from the Insight on the Scriptures under the heading OBEISANCE:

"While some translators use the word ?worship? in the majority of cases where pro·sky·ne?o describes persons? actions toward Jesus, the evidence does not warrant one?s reading too much into this rendering. Rather, the circumstances that evoked the obeisance correspond very closely to those producing obeisance to the earlier prophets and kings. (Compare Mt 8:2; 9:18; 15:25; 20:20 with 1Sa 25:23, 24; 2Sa 14:4-7; 1Ki 1:16; 2Ki 4:36, 37.) The very expressions of those involved often reveal that, while they clearly recognized Jesus as God?s representative, they rendered obeisance to him, not as to God or a deity, but as ?God?s Son,? the foretold ?Son of man,? the Messiah with divine authority. On many occasions their obeisance expressed a gratitude for divine revelation or evidence of favor like that expressed in earlier times.?Mt 14:32, 33; 28:5-10, 16-18; Lu 24:50-52; Joh 9:35, 38." - http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/12000...